Bajji: Indian Fritters

Bajji is a favourite snack in Tamil Nadu and is available in the evening in all roadside tea shops and even in big restaurants. In different parts of India it is also known as Pakoda or Pakora or Bhajia.

Bajji is prepared by deep frying cut vegetables coated with a batter of gram flour (kadalai mavu) and some spices. Vegetables like banana pepper, raw banana, brinjal (eggplant), potato, capsicum, onion, cauliflower etc., can be used to make bajji. Banana pepper can be fried with a vegetable filling inside to make it more tasty. Bajji is a mouthwatering tea time snack. As bajji is deep fried, in our family we have it with ginger tea to easily digest it.

Serves: 6

Cooking time: 30 to 40 minutes

Ingredients

• Gram flour or kadalai mavu – 3 cup
• Corn flour or rice flour – 2 table spoon
• Turmeric powder – ¼ tea spoon
• Red chilli powder – 1 tea spoon
• Omam or oregano – ¼ tea spoon
• Asafetida – pinch
• Sodium bicarbonate or cooking soda – pinch
• Salt – as per taste
• Oil – for frying bajji
• Vegetables for bajji
  • Banana pepper – 6 to 7 no
  • Brinjal – 1 no
  • Potato – 1 no
  • Capsicum – 1 no
  • Onion – 1 no
• For stuffing banana pepper
  • Potato- 3 no
  • Carrot – 1 no
  • Roasted cumin powder – ¼ tea spoon
  • Dry mango powder or amchur – ¼ tea spoon
  • Chilli powder – ½ tea spoon
  • Salt – as per taste

Method

• Bajji batter: in gram flour add salt, turmeric, red chilli powder, omam, asafetida powder, cooking soda, corn flour and mix well; add enough water to make thick dough like idli batter without any lumps.

• Cut brinjal, potato, onion and capsicum into thin round slices.
• Filling for banana pepper: chop carrot into fine pieces; boil potato, mash and add chopped carrot, other dry spices given; mix well and keep.

• Slit banana pepper as shown, remove seeds, and fill each with stuffing and keep.

• Heat oil in a pan, dip each piece in the batter and fry till crisp.

• Serve with tomato sauce or chutney.

Tips

• Omam or oregano is added in bajji batter to give nice flavour and to help digestion.
• Corn flour helps to get crisp bajji and to reduce oil absorption during deep frying.

This post is part of the event “WYF:Tea time snack” hosted by EC of Simple Indian Food.